Edo State Government has announced the arrest of two village heads and seven others in connection with the January 7 train attack that led to the abduction of 20 people at the Igueben train station.
Chris Nehikhare, commissioner for communication and orientation, Edo State disclosed after the state executive council meeting in Benin, Wednesday January 19, 2023.
“The success story in the kidnapping is that seven suspects, two village heads have been arrested and are cooperating with investigations,” Nehikhare said. ‘The two remaining passengers in captivity had also been rescued by security agents.”
Initially, 32 hostages were reported kidnapped, but that figure was later changed to 20 victims, with many rescued earlier this month.
“On January 7, 2023, at about 1600hrs, an unspecified number of herdsmen armed with AK-47 riffles attacked the train station at Igueben, Edo State and kidnapped an unspecified number of passengers who were waiting to board the train to Warri,” said Chidi Nwabuzor, spokesperson for the Edo State Police Command.
This is Nigeria’s second mass kidnapping using train stations in ten months. The event occurred less than a year after bandits attacked the Abuja-Kaduna train on March 28, 2022, killing 14 passengers and kidnapping 65 others.
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